Help Sought In Superintendent Search

Panel Picks Consultant

School Board Ok Needed

BRISTOL — After a final round of interviews, the school board's personnel committee settled on a consultant Wednesday to help it conduct a search for a new school superintendent.

CABE Search Services, a nonprofit service offered through the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, was one of four companies interviewed and one of two finalists. Since the departure of School Superintendent Ann Clark in July, the personnel committee had been weighing whether to hire a consultant or conduct the search on its own.

Board member Reinhard Walker, who heads the committee, is expected to recommend that CABE Search Services be hired for the search. The hiring is subject to the approval of the full board, which is expected to vote on the matter at a meeting Nov. 6.

Eliza Holcomb, a senior search consultant with CABE, and Louis Esparo, of West Hartford-based Goens/Esparo LLC, offered impressive presentations and seemed willing to work with the school board, said board Chairman Richard Saporito, a member of the committee. There was no significant difference in price, he said.

The deciding factor, committee members agreed, was experience and perspective.

Esparo and his partner, George Goens, are retired superintendents with extensive administrative experience. Holcomb and Deborah S. Raizes, the other senior consultant to CABE, have backgrounds that include human resources, teaching, and service on school boards in Milford and Scarsdale, N.Y., respectively.

That Raizes had conducted searches in larger school districts than Goens/Esparo also impressed committee members. Since 1998, her clients have included school boards in Bloomfield, Bridgeport, Fairfield, Norwalk and Waterbury, as well as Syracuse, N.Y.

CABE is primarily an advocacy group but offers a variety of other programs and services to its member boards. Introduced about five years ago, the search service is offered in partnership with Illinois-based Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, the largest superintendent search firm in the country. Fees for the search will be negotiated and range from $4,600 to $20,000.

Depending on input from focus groups, Holcomb and Raizes could end up searching for an assistant superintendent rather than a superintendent.

People from a range of local groups, from elected officials to teachers and parents, will be asked what they are looking for in a superintendent. If Michael Wasta, acting superintendent of schools, or another internal candidate fits that profile, a search committee could recommend hiring from within, Saporito said. Wasta was assistant superintendent before being selected as acting superintendent.

The list of potential members for the search committee will be presented to the board at the November meeting, he said. Board policy dictates that the committee have about eight members and include at least four members of the school board, an administrator, teacher and representative of the community.